If you are what you eat then I would undoubtedly end up some cross between a banana and a block of extra sharp white cheddar. Not exactly a pretty outcome, but reality nonetheless. I always try to have bananas on hand and I do my best to eat them before they go bad, but a girl can only eat so much fruit. Sometimes they do sit on the counter and turn an unsightly shade, and instead of throwing them out I freeze them to use in bread or muffins at a later time.

Last weekend it occurred to me that the bag of frozen bananas was absolutely taking over and beginning to consider creating a freezer dictatorship with the carton of Ben & Jerry’s and Stouffers frozen lasagna. A recipe intervention was urgently in order. Thankfully I found a lovely and simple sorbet that allowed me to use all six of the troublesome bananas at one time so peace has once again resumed in the freezer kingdom.

I absolutely loved how this sorbet came out! The texture and taste were excellent, and I like to think that it’s almost a good for me frozen treat if you overlook that whole cup of sugar syrup. At least it isn’t heavy cream, right? Although, I suppose I should confess that I topped my first dish with fudge sauce, caramelized walnuts, and maraschino cherries.

Banana Sorbet
Available in Sally Sampson’s cookbook Recipe of the Week: Ice Cream published by Wiley Press

2 cups pureed overripe bananas
1 cup sugar syrup (Note: Per Sally - Place 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan and cook, over medium high heat, until the sugar has completely dissolved, about 3 minutes.  Set aside to cool, cover and refrigerate up to 1 month).
1 tablespoon fresh lemon or lime juice

Place the bananas, sugar syrup and lemon juice in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture reaches 40ºF, about two hours.

Transfer to an ice cream maker and proceed according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

One of the things Erin and I have enjoyed the most over the last few months has been the weekly deliveries from Boston Organics. Unfortunately, we found ourselves neglecting the occasional apple thrown in the bin with the rest of the delicious fruits and veggies.

Of course, an apple here, and an apple there, and all of a sudden we had close to two dozen apples sitting in the crisper drawer. What were we to do?

I’d always wanted to try and make applesauce, but imagined it to be some sort of difficult and elusive recipe, a black art impossible for a mere mortal like myself to tackle. Browsing through Cooks Illustrated, I found something entirely to the contrary:

“Choose the right apple, don’t peel it, and add nothing more than sugar and water. It’s that simple.”

Heeding that advice, I thought it was definitely time to make some homemade applesauce.

This is probably one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever come across. It’s pretty much on par with making oatmeal. I don’t know why I let myself be so intimated by a little old apple!

Simple Applesauce (Reprinted with permission. Originally published in the September 1, 2002 edition of Cooks Illustrated)

If you do not own a food mill or you prefer applesauce with a coarse texture, peel the apples before coring and cutting them, and, after cooking, mash them against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon or against the bottom of the pot with a potato masher. Applesauce made with out-of-season apples may be somewhat drier than sauce made with peak-season apples, so it’s likely that in step 2 of the recipe you will need to add more water to adjust the texture. If you double the recipe, the apples will need 10 to 15 minutes of extra cooking time.

Applesauce
4 pounds apples (8 to 12 medium), preferably Jonagold, Pink Lady, Jonathan, or Macoun, unpeeled, cored, and cut into rough 1 1/2-inch pieces
1/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch table salt
1 cup water

Optional Flavorings
2 tablespoons unsalted butter - stir into finished sauce
3 inch cinnamon sticks (2) — cook with apples and remove prior to pureeing
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon - stir into finished sauce
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen) - cook and puree with apples
4 whole cloves - cook with apples and remove prior to serving
1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger , sliced into three pieces and smashed - cook with apples and remove prior to pureeing
1 teaspoon lemon zest - cook and puree with apples
2 tablespoons lemon juice - stir into finished sauce
2/3 cup Red Hot candy - cook and puree with apples
2 pieces star anise (whole) - cook with apples and remove prior to serving

1. Toss apples, sugar, salt, and water in large, heavy-bottomed nonreactive Dutch oven. Cover pot and cook apples over medium-high heat until they begin to break down, 15 to 20 minutes, checking and stirring occasionally with wooden spoon to break up any large chunks. (Note: I added water as the apples cooked to keep the “applesauce” liquidity throughout the cooking process. I also added ground cinnamon at this stage in lieu of cinnamon sticks, as I didn’t have any.)

2. Process cooked apples through food mill fitted with medium disk. Season with extra sugar or add water to adjust consistency as desired. Serve hot, warm, at room temperature, or chilled. (Can be covered and refrigerated for up to 5 days.) Note: As we don’t have a food mill, I used the Cooks Illustrated-sanctioned alternative method of breaking them up with a wooden spoon during the cooking process, then using a potato masher at the end to break it into the right consistency.

Please ignore my absurd attempt at homemade guacamole and take a moment to really inspect the chips in the photo. Wait a minute?! Is that a … surfboard? Yes, my fellow party dip makers, those are in fact “Longboard Chips” made by the funky folks at Trader Joe’s. These organic tortilla chips are tasty, and must only be served while channeling Matthew McConaughey. All right…All right…All right…

Now, who wants to share their top secret recipes and tips for making really awesome guacamole? CK, Melissa, and I had the best guacamole I’ve ever had a few weeks ago at Ole Mexican Grill in Inman square. Unfortunately I was too busy socializing and sipping a super strong margarita to notice how they made the guacamole. Did I mention they make it tableside? It’s all in all phenomenal. We polished off our whole bowl with gusto. Next time I’m not going to take my eyes off the server while they prepare it.

For the record I have been so incredibly impressed with all of the Tovolo products I’ve been using over the last few weeks. The molds I used for Popsicle Week were all distributed by Tovolo and the ice cream sandwich molds I tested for this post were no exception. With the assistance of these cute contraptions making ice cream sandwiches becomes incredibly easy. You begin by baking your favorite soft and chewy cookie recipe. I made a batch of Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies, of course. Next, you allow them to cool slightly before cutting out the cookies with whichever shape you decide to use. This kit comes with a heart, star, and a squircle. I’m not making that up. They actually refer to the odd shaped mold as a “squircle.”  There’s also a kit that comes with animal shapes (a chicken, cow, and pig) if that’s more your style. After cutting out your cookie shapes let them cool completely on a wire rack. Finally, assemble the cookies by placing one cookie in the mold, adding a scoop of ice cream, topping with an additional cookie, and firmly applying pressure with the cookie press. Voila! A cute ice cream sandwich is born. If you aren’t going to eat the treats immediately you’ll definitely want to place them in the freezer as they start to melt quickly.

I can definitely imagine using something like this for a child’s slumber party, birthday party, or even as an interactive end to a grown-up dinner party. Just bake the cookie shapes ahead of time and set out the molds, ice cream, and bowls of sprinkles for your guests to use.

Note: There’s actually an “xoxo” engraved on the cookie press. I was really excited about this because it made me think of that show Gossip Girl. It’s hard to see in my photos, probably because of the type of cookie I baked, but I believe if you used a lighter colored sugar cookie or peanut butter cookie you’d be able to see the detail much more clearly.

PS: Many thanks to Anna D for giving me these as a birthday gift last month! Do my friends know me well, or what?

CK brought this Rachel’s Yogurt home for me. Do you think he’s trying to tell me something? “Relax” you say? What’s that?! If it really did chill me out I’d buy a case. Maybe two. Sadly, this definitely didn’t do anything of the sort as it unfortunately had a very unpleasant almost chalky taste to it. I couldn’t even finish it.

In addition to the Vanilla Chai, CK also bought a selection of other flavors and I haven’t heard any complaints. I had a bite of the Pomegranate Blueberry and it was excellent. I guess the moral of the story is that you can’t eat your feelings away. My Wheat Thins addiction might have something to say about that but we’ll tackle those issues another day. In the meantime I’ll be sticking with my Maple flavored Wallaby.

[PS: We originally discovered the existence of this yogurt via Rachel's Bite].

CK and I are really enjoying our weekly Boston Organics deliveries. We even purchased a cooler to leave in the lobby for the nice delivery man to transfer our yummy fruits and veggies into for safe keeping until one of us wanders home from work.  I had to revive my lettuce a few too many times before I realized…oh duh…maybe this stuff needs a better home than a green plastic tote for eight hours.

So all in all it’s going very well.  Except for the avocados.  Over the last five weeks I’ve thrown out five avocados.  How horrible is that!  I feel guilty every time I have to toss the poor guys into the trash, but I just haven’t been able to think of a anything to do with them other than possibly make guacamole.  The thing is…I sort of hate guacamole and until Sunday morning I sort of disliked avocados.  I’d eat it if you put it in front of me, or you wrapped it up in sushi, but I’d never go out of my way to buy or use them.  But then CK shared a post on Google Reader about making Avocado Toast, and our friend Anna chimed in with a resounding email response of, “This is totes my favorite snack!!!!”  It appeared imminent that avocado and I would be forced to meet once again, and meet we did — spread on warm toast with a simple concoction of spices. It was a phenomenally good time!  From now on I promise that CK and I will be fighting over the avocados in our house and I vow to never throw one out ever again.

Avocado Toast (Based on Dani’s original recipe at Messy Cookin via Projectionist)
Makes 3 slices of delicious avocado topped bread

1 avocado
3 slices of bread (Note: I used Arnold Country White.  When I’m “bad” I’m very very bad).
Red Pepper Flakes
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Olive Oil

Toast the bread.  Slice the avocado in half, remove the flesh and place into a small bowl.  Mash the avocado with a fork and spread onto the toasted bread.

Sprinkle the toast with Red Pepper Flakes, salt and pepper, and drizzle lightly with olive oil.